Saxo Bank heralds disruptive approach as 25th anniversary looms, Banking as a Service bears massive fruit
As Saxo Bank approaches its 25th anniversary, CEO Kim Fournais looks at the firm’s technology led stance, majoring on ‘Banking as a Service’ and commitment to disruptive technology in the financial sector
A revolutionary approach to the operational aspects of the banking sector is not something that often makes its presence felt, and when it does, is often the preserve of recent start-ups with aspirations of creating a very quick marketing-orientated noise and thus either remaining fringe entities or looking for a quick exit before their young and aspiring creators move on to something else.
For this reason, the highly advanced interbank and institutional FX sector has remained dominant in its accepted and standardized format.
That is, except for one particular company which is approaching its twenty-fifth year in business, and whose technologically disruptive approach has been the incubator for many revolutionary aspects of its business.
Today, during the same week that the company has finalized its calculation of its revenues and commercial metrics for the first half of this year, CEO Kim Fournais heralds the firm’s approach which has led to it offering a ‘Banking as a Service’ (BaaS) solution, thus aligning its financial sector product range with software as a service in the high technology sector.
In a commercial statement today, Mr Fournais explained: “The results for the first six months of 2017 are testament to our efforts to continue to invest and continuously improve our client experience and technology. In September, we will celebrate Saxo Bank’s first 25 years in business and our journey from being an early online trading pioneer to becoming the leading facilitator of global capital market access where Saxo delivers “Banking as a Service (BaaS).”
“Saxo was a fintech long before the term was created and still to this day, we remain focused on constantly advancing our technology to ensure we are at the forefront of client focused digitisation of the financial services industry” he said.
The company has managed to grow its capital base substantially, a matter that has been instrumental to its position as a genuine prime of prime brokerage during times at which banks are looking closely at counterparty credit agreements with OTC liquidity takers.
This has manifested itself in a declared net profit of DKK 229 million for the first six months of 2017, an increase of 45 per cent compared to the first half of 2016, and in the rise in clients’ collateral deposits to a record high of DKK 98.3 billion and despite low volatility the operating income for the group reached DKK 1.56 billion compared to DKK 1.46 billion in 2016.
Image: Saxo Bank explains technologically disruptive approach to FinanceFeeds in Hong Kong, February 2016
